Charcoal
by mamsmarie
Summary: An American University Student comes to teach Arabic at Ouran High School. The confused and delighted Host Club antagonize and entertain her, and the group embark on a crazy adventure together. Mori x OC.
1. Chapter 1

Mori walked by his grandfathers office, his ears slightly perked in annoyance at his grandfathers animated phone conversation with an old friend. He had no desire to eavesdrop, but he heard his name mentioned

"Ah, then she is only a few months younger than Takashi! Perfect! Perfect!"

He knew instantly who his grandfather was talking to – Tamman Assad, an old friend from his school days. As Mori's grandfather was growing up, the Morinozuka family was traveling Europe, training various militaries. Mori's grandfather was sent to an international school in Switzerland. There he met Tamman Assad, his best friend for his entire life. Tamman was apart of the royal family of Jordan, his family famous for its control of the Jordanian military.

As best friends, and as two straight males that couldn't marry each other, the two made a promise that they would betroth the first girl born and the first boy born, age permitting. Mori never thought they were actually serious about it, but because there was no girls born to either of them the fact that they couldn't do it made them want to do it even more. So ever since Mori can remember, Sensei Tamman was introducing random girls to him. Also, whenever Grandfather would come to school events, Mori and his brother would watch painfully as his picked out girls that would match Sensei Tamman's sons and grandsons.

Other than that, he didn't know much about Sensei Tamman. He knew that he had pursued a military career, but rather became a scholar and was now a professor at Yale University. He also knew he was eccentric, and while his family was very wealthy, he was not. His wife was. She was one of the top doctors at Yale's Hospitals. Kyouya mentioned that once. Apparently, she too was a very frivolous, eccentric woman.

Suddenly, Mori heard the phone click and his grandfather was suddenly at the door with a big grin on his face.

"We have a visitor coming!"

* * *

Inez Tierdies sighed as she left Professor Assad's office. It was a mix of exasperation and the stress of trying to be grateful. The Assad family had blessed her by being her benefactors to a Yale education, but their eccentricities were definitely catching up to her.

With only two months left of her sophomore year, Professor Assad threw her an offer she couldn't refuse: A year in Japan…teaching Arabic.

Yes, Arabic. Inez was majoring in International Studies, focusing on the Middle East. The major also requires a secondary region of study, which requires either an extra four courses or a year abroad. Inez hadn't actually chosen her second region yet, and just assumed she would be taking the four classes, so being thrown a free trip to Japan is definitely a good thing.

Although, she would be leaving a week before exams started, meaning she would have to take them early, and she would be staying with family friends of the Assad's in Japan. She also didn't speak a word of Japanese.

"Oh well. There are more positives than negative." She then walked to the school bookstore to buy the Introductory Japanese Textbook.

* * *

Mori has just finished his time at Ouran. Hani and himself had no immediate college plans, both of them were taking time to train.

In April the new Ouran school year would begin. So far, no one had replaced himself and Hani at the Host Club, not that Mori particularly cared.

Mori was debating whether or not to tell the others about the Arabic tutor coming to Ouran. Hani wants to, but he doesn't see what difference it will make if they know or don't know. Tamaki's father had been over a couple of times to discuss the situation, and by discuss, squeal excitedly at their plans.

From what Mori could figure out, they are going to pick two students from each grade to receive tutoring. They are going to use it as a pilot program to actually having an Arabic class at the school. Parents have brought it up before, with the Middle East becoming more and more a region of political and economic activity.

Haruhi and Kyouya were two of the students chosen.


	2. Chapter 2

Two Months Later:

Inez was apprehensive as the airplane was about to land. She wasn't sad about missing the last week of classes, or even leaving for a year. She didn't mesh well with the Ivy league The only person she would miss, Margaret, would be going to Ecuador for a year anyways.

Margaret had been her saving grace her since 5th grade, when they met. They were both new students that fall, and had been clumped together, and had been inseparable ever since. It was Margaret who funded their trip from Detroit to Connecticut saying that she wanted to have a road trip, but Inez really knew that Margaret wanted to make sure she got a chance to take the scholarship exam.

Margaret also took the exam, but heroically stood up in the middle of the exam and exclaimed: "Fuck this, I'm out." And walked out of the room.

Inez squirmed uncomfortably again, in her new clothes. For the plane ride she had dark blue matchstick jeans, gray flats, a feldgrau gray cardigan and a black v-neck tee. She was never one to dress poorly, but she never dressed nicely. Her wardrobe of J-Crew and other relatively upscale brands was not comforting, but she did appreciate them and trusted that it would make a better impression on her host family. The clothes definitely complimented her body though, she noticed. She was not a pencil thin girl, she had curves, but she was tall so it evened out nicely. Dressing nicely somehow made her dark, long, curly, pulled back into a bun hair style look classy and the dress complimented her ivory skin, rather than making her look pale and sick like her band t-shirts did. The only that was hidden, in the only feminine vanity you would likely see her admit, was her bright blue eyes were diminished in the luminosity a bit. Someone would really have to be looking to notice their brilliance.

It was upon the insistence of Dr. Assad, Professor Assad's wife, that she get an entirely new wardrobe. She wasn't subtle about it either,

"You dress poorly, and you'll be staying with rich people."

"Oh…"  
"Come on, get in the car, we're going shopping."

"But…I have class, now."

"I know. I arranged for your T.A. to cover for you." Only later did Inez learn that Dr. Assad paid her T.A. to say she was there, even though it was a class that didn't take attendance, but then, she just sighed and got into the passenger side of the car.

Her grandson, Billy, sat in the backseat. He was four and was visiting his grandma for the day while his mother had a mental health day.

"We're going to make you look pretty!" He exclaimed, with a slightly sadistic ring to it.

Inez just turned around and smiled uncomfortably. Billy was strapped to his car seat, but something about it just seemed that it was there for a decoration, not a safety device.

At the department store, she learned of Mori, and how they were trying to hook the two of them up.

Dr. Assad had given her a particularly slutty business suit to try on, as she came stumbling out of the dressing room, Dr. Assad weighed the outfit.

"I wonder if the heels are tall enough, Mori is pretty tall and we want him to see your cleavage."

"Wha-?"

"If you give her taller heels, I could probably see up her skirt Grandma!" Billy exclaimed, bending backwards to give it a shot.

"Ah! No, you're four!"

"I'm just thinking maybe if Mori had bent over…maybe." He pouted.

"Who is Mori? Why does he need to see my privates?" Inez suddenly demanded.

"Well aren't we getting snippy?" Dr. Assad replied in her 'I'm a Yale Doctor' voice she used usually on special occasions only.

"Mori is the Grandson of the man who is funding your Oriental adventure, missy."

"You mean Professor Assad's BFF's grandson-"

"BFFE." Dr. Assad and Billy interjected in unison.

"BFFE's grandson," Inez corrected, "and you're trying to hook me up with him?"

Dr. Assad and Billy looked at each other.

"Well, see that the Assad and Morinozuka sperm count has been surprisingly Y-chromosome exclusive," Dr. Assad began to explain, "there have been no females born to either side and Tamman and his BFFE have always dreamed of tying the families together through matrimony…and since there are no girls and you are like a daughter to us – "

"Am I being sent to Japan to be betrothed?!"

"In essence." Billy muttered.

"Don't feel pressured though! It's just a pipe dream of theirs, even though you two would be increeedible for each other! You're both so broody and mysterious and angry looking."

Inez furrowed her eyes, "I resent that."

"See!" Dr. Assad squealed, pulling Billy into a giant hug, "wouldn't Mori just look so cute standing behind her looking indifferent?!"

Inez looked defeated, but decided that she wasn't really surprised by the secret intention, that she was getting a free trip to Japan, and at least she knew before hand that they wanted her to get together with a guy named Mori.

She just sighed and only minimally interfered with the outfits Dr. Assad and Billy picked out for her, she just wanted to make sure certain body parts were adequately covered.


	3. Chapter 3

Haruhi saw Kyouya down the hallway and ran up to meet him. She was walking towards her first Arabic class.

"Kyouya-Sempai, you're also were taking Arabic this term?"

"You're correct," He smiled at her "I'm looking forward to being classmates."

"Me too, actually, but…why are you taking Arabic?"

"Do you really have to ask? The Middle East is a booming center of business, schools in Jordan and the Emirates produce some of the best doctors in the world. It would simply be practical to speak a few words. Not to mention I'm interested linguistically. The real question is why are you pursuing the language Haruhi?"

"Well, you know I want to be a lawyer, right? Well, I'm not quite sure what sort of practice I want to pursue, but I really think asylum law would be interesting. I've been reading about Palestine lately and…" she paused for a second "I've always been interested in ancient Egypt. I don't know, I guess I just can't think of any reasons not to give it a try." She smiled back, reminiscent and happy.

They sat down in the classroom. The room had been prepared for the class, six student desks facing a teacher's and a chalk board. The other four students were already there. Haruhi smiled warmly at the sight of Kasanoda "Hello!" she exclaimed "You're taking Arabic as well?"

"Yeah." He grunted, not looking happy. "The administration thought it would give me leg up in dealing with terrorists – you know, cause I'm a thug and all and that's what I am supposed to do, unfortunately my father agreed."

Haruhi didn't miss a beat. "Well, think of it as a way to prove you can learn Arabic and not have to associate with terrorists at all."

Kasanoda didn't look excited, but still retained a major crush on Haruhi, so he smiled and thanked her, and then cursed the fates.

Kyouya engaged himself in chat with the girl from his class. She was a shy girl, but no one was surprised by her being in the class; both of her parents were diplomats, both to completely different regions of the world. Thus, she had accumulated an impressive mastery of numerous tongues and Arabic would soon be amongst them.

The two first years sat together. They were dating. The girl was in the class because her father did business in Saudi Arabia and she already spoke a little Arabic, but couldn't read or write; the boy was in the class because he was dating her.

They all just sat and chatted for a while, waiting for their teacher to arrive.

Inez was frazzled. This school was giant; she was lost, and completely unnerved about how awkward her arrival to Japan was yesterday.

She had gotten off the plane, made her way to luggage area safely and without harm, only to be bombarded by a family of ninjas.

They weren't literally ninja's, but most of the clan had come to meet her and pretty much you could tell they were all exceptionally trained in the art of fighting. Except for the blonde cuddly one, but something about him made her uneasy, so she noted to never underestimate him.

He was the one who broke the ice. "HI HI HI HI HI HI!" He exclaimed, in odd English. "I hope that you think my English is good! I practiced it just for you!"

"Hi, um, it's very good. What's your name?"

"Hani!"

"Hunny?"

"Yeah!"

He had Inez in a bear hug that whole time, until a tall, silent figure bent down and, with some effort, peeled Hani off. She looked up at him, and before she could extend a hand in greeting- her body was pushed into his.

"This is Takashi! Everyone wants you two to get married!" Hani exclaimed, without pausing he added, "Well, do you? Do you want to marry Takashi? I want you to!"

Inez removed her face from Mori's chest and laughed awkwardly to buy herself a second. Mori was looking down at her with the same expression she was looking up at him with – the 'why I am in this situation?' look. At least they had the same thoughts on the matter.

"Well, we'll have to see what happens, Hani."

"Yay! Now meet everyone else!"

She met everyone else. Half of them were like Hani, who embraced her shamelessly with strong, ninja fighter reflexes that at least made her feel safe- kind of. The other half were like Mori, silent, a small hello and that was all.

On the limo ride home she had to sit next to Mori. At dinner, she had to sit next to Mori. Mori had to give her the house tour. The only thing that really bothered her about the situation was that now it was going to be ten times harder to get to be friends with Mori, simply because every time the two of them were together someone gave an excited glance and whispered the fact to someone else.

Even once, Mori's grandfather popped out of dark shadow and pushed the two of them into a closet, locked it, and yelled "Get to know each other!"

She shouldn't have been surprised that Professor Assad's best friend was eccentric, but this was ridiculous.

At least in the closet, in complete darkness, she got to know a little bit more about Mori.

"They're really pushing this, aren't they?" She muttered, jokingly. He was quite, but his extreme annoyance pushed the words through.

"He's been pulling this our whole lives. Satoshi brought a girl home once for a school project. Grandpa thought she was a family friend he never met…and lets just say her and Satoshi will never have another class together, let alone a school project."

Inez didn't let her imagination run wild. If Professor Assad was willing to fund a year in Japan on the off chance that she would hook up with Mori, then she didn't want to know what Mori's considerably more eccentric Grandfather would do.

"Yeah, if I had known that this "study abroad" was a loosely disguised betrothal before it was too late, I don't know if I would have gone."

Mori grunted. "It'll be alright. Besides, the students you'll be meeting at Ouran will be much more insane than my family." She didn't know how to respond to that, but he continued. "But I'm glad you came, if we get married or if we don't."

"Yeah, me too, actually." There was a pause "How much longer do you think we'll be locked in here?"

"All night."

"Huh?"

"Don't worry." She felt his arms on her shoulders, guiding her away from the door behind him. She couldn't see what he was doing, but suddenly the door was cracked down the middle and light from the hallway flooded in.

A crowd had gathered in anticipation, hoping that they would come off without any clothes.

"It's time for bed." He grunted angrily at mix of cleaning staff and family members, leading Inez to her bedroom.

And now here she was, lost in Middle Earth, unaware of where to go. She knew the class had already started, and she was fairly anal about punctuality, which only made her loose her cool more and more.

Straining her neck, looking at the door labels placed way unnecessarily high and having difficultly making out the elegant Japanese writing, Inez did not look at all in front of her. Suddenly, she felt herself bump into a student.

Beautiful, tall, and blonde Tamaki turned and smiled at Inez, who had lost her balance and fallen.

"Beautiful princess! What unholy demon had possessed me to knock over such a darling, graceful and elegant creature as yourself?" He exclaimed in French, helping her up.

Mori was not kidding when he said the students at Ouran would be much more intense than his family.


	4. Chapter 4

Third-year students at Ouran, if they are a president of a club, are allowed to opt one of their elective credits as a "preparation hour" for said club.

That is why Tamaki was standing in the hallway, impersonating portraits of great historical figures when Inez bumped into him.

At first she was flabbergasted that this insane boy was complimenting her freely in French, but she soon realized he was speaking in French and not Japanese.

"You speak French?!" She exclaimed

"You speak French?" He responded, not so surprised. French wasn't the uncommon in these parts.

"Thank god!" She threw her head back and laughed, "Can you please show me where room 34-b is?"  
"A mission? I am delighted! I can take you to where you need to go!" He exclaimed and grabbed Inez by the arm and swooped her under his shoulder in a protective gesture.

"You must have been so scared! Are you a transfer student here? I know the pain, when I came here I was so scared, timid like the dear lamb you are, afraid of the greatness Ouran had to provide."

"No- I'm actually…"

"Are you France? You must be from France! I am from France and I too thought that no one in Japan would speak my lovely language but you would be surprised, even though most don't speak as lovely as you. You do have quite the interesting accent, what part of France are you from? I'm not familiar with it?"

"I'm not from France, I learned French in high school and got this accent from a summer in Damascus."

Tamaki looked at her blankly.

"Syria."

"Oh." He said. "What?"

"Yes, and I'm not a student. I'm a teacher."

"OHH! Hahah! You are quite the young looking teacher, mademoiselle, what is your secret to youth? You must let me know, my greatest fear in life is to age!"

"I have no secret, I'm nineteen."

"I'm eighteen." Tamaki thought aloud. "How is that possible?"

"I wish I knew." She muttered. They had arrived at the classroom. "Well, thank you for showing me the way." Inez said politely. "Could you tell me your name?"

"Suoh, Tamaki." He repeated, robotically.

"Nice to meet you, Suoh, I have to get going now."

She opened the door to the room, and her six students looked at her curiously. Tamaki saw Haruhi and Kyouya and his eyes lit up instantly.

"MOM AND DAUGHTER!" He yelled, running into the room before Inez had the opportunity to first apologize for her tardiness and then introduce herself.

"Are you serious?" She spoke aloud, in English.

"Unfortunately, yes." Kyouya said, appearing mysteriously behind her while both of their eyes watched Tamaki hug Haruhi to death.

"Oh. He isn't in this class is he?"

"No."

"TAMAKI SEMPAI!" Haruhi yelled. "GET OUT! I WANT TO STUDY"

Tamaki whimpered, he had been conditioned to learn that those words meant he had crossed a line and Haruhi would be mad at him for a little while. He backed out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Inez looked stunned "Is he going to be alright?"

"Yes." Kasanoda, Haruhi and Kyouya muttered in unison.

"Oh, good. Okay, well. My name is Inez Tierdies, I can be called Inez." She spoke in poor Japanese. "First, can everyone speak French?" They all nodded their heads.

"Oh good," She exclaimed, instantly switching over to French and thus spoke with much more ease. "I don't particularly care for the reasons you all have to take Arabic, to each his own. I am here to teach you the language. I can tell you what I know about the culture, but I am an American, so my knowledge will be subjective and limited I hope you can all keep that in mind. Right now, I just want to know your names."

The class introduced themselves, and as they did she wrote down their names on the board in Arabic.

"You won't know how to read the language fully for another month or so, but I expect you to label your papers in Arabic."

Inez smiled, it was the first time since she had gotten to Japan where things have been calm. Her students were all mild mannered, polite and bright.  
"Maybe this won't be too crazy after all." She thought to herself, optimistically.

She thought wrong.


	5. Chapter 5

Tamaki sat Indian style outside of the classroom door.

"WHAT IS THIS?!?!?" He yelled to no one.

Frustrated, and desperate to find out what was happening, he declared, again to no one in particular "I need backup!" and ran to the art building.

Hikaru and Kaoru sat at adjacent work stations. They were both taking an "independent study fashion arts class" also known as "their parents called in and enabled them to have a free hour instead of an elective." They were both working on outfits for the host club, also known as working on skimpy outfits for Haruhi.

They had their Haruhi mannequin currently dressed in a bedazzled miniskirt and a top that consisted of sparsely placed cloth strips.

Kaoru was working on removing clothe strips from the Haruhi mannequin when Tamaki burst through the door.

"There is a crisis afoot!" He yelled, the room shaking from the slammed door, but he was stopped in his tracks when he saw the nude Haruhi mannequin.

His mind instantly flew to another place; he and Haruhi were at a dance club, the timid girl smiling up at him while still seeking his protection.

"Thanks for dragging me out here Sempai." She giggled, "I'm having so much fun."

"It's my pleasure, princess."

"You make me feel so safe, even with all these creepy guys here." She whispered, somewhat nervously.

"Don't worry about them, princess." He cooed, and without breaking their gaze, he punched said creepers so that they ran away.

"Oh! Sempai!"

"Break out of it Sempai." Hikaru complained, stabbing Tamaki in the arm with a sewing needle. "What's the crisis?"

"YOU'RE SADISTIC WAYS!" He yelled. "WHAT DOES STABBING ME DO?"

"Keeps you from degrading Haruhi with your mind."

"As opposed to a sex-mannequin?!"

"No ones complaining and you're enjoying it." Hikaru and Kaoru said together. Tamaki grunted. "So what's the crisis?"

"Oh, yes! Haruhi, Kasanoda, Kyoya and three other students are in a secret cult together!"

"Hmm?" Hikaru and Kaoru responded, intrigued.

"Yes, I don't know much about it, but they are led by a cult leader disguising herself as a teacher, even though she's only 19."

"How do you know she's 19?"

"She told me."

"Hmm?"

"I asked her before so stole my precious Haruhi and Kyoya from me! Now I don't know if I'll ever see them again!"

"Are you sure boss?"

"Yes! I need you two to help me figure out what is happening!"

"Right! Chief!"

Inez was happy with the day's success. There was only five minutes left in the class and they had already gotten through a third of the alphabet. The class was great, the two younger kids were kind of bratty, but if that was going to be the worst part then she would take it.

The class was now completing a worksheet, she was sitting down trying to fight her jetlag and hoping she would be able to navigate her way back to the front were Mori would be waiting with a limo.

The class ended, and she dismissed the students. Inez felt extremely weird giving commands to students a few years younger than her, but she was glad they were tolerant of her lack of authority and accepted that she was there simply because she was knowledgeable about Arabic.

They had filed out, and she sat for a second simply to avoid having to talk to any of them just yet. Inez was still overwhelmed with the past couple of days and knew she wasn't ready to form a relationship with any of her students just yet. She was planning on it though, her favorite part of taking language classes, especially less commonly taught languages, was the small classes where everyone become close and good friends. Today was not the day to do that though.

After she was sure they had all left, Inez gathered her things, took a deep breath and prepped herself to navigate out of the giant school. One step out of the door and she was shocked with a bag over her head and being carried by two strangers.

She wasn't scared; the only thing she could think of was "Is this seriously happening?"

She was plopped down on a chair and the bag was ripped off her head. It was the blonde kid from before, accompanied by two orange haired twins.

"Who are you!" Tamaki demanded.

"Who are you?" Inez shot back, incredulously

"Don't let her trick you boss!" Hikaru whispered in Tamaki's ear.

"I'm not going to trick anyone!" She yelled, "You're the ones who kidnapped me!"

"Because you kidnapped Kyoya and Haruhi!"

"What?"

"You made them join your cult!"

"Are you serious?! They're my students!"

"Don't try your lies on us! We know the truth!" The three of them said in unison.

"Could you tell me the truth, because I don't know it!"

"You would like that wouldn't you? We're just going to keep at it until you tell me!"

Inez sighed, this was going to take a while.

Haruhi and Kyoya walked with each other to their respective lockers, and then to the host club. They had both enjoyed Arabic class, and it was nice to have a class together, both of them serious about their studies unlike the other members of the host club.

It took them a while to get there, so they were both surprised that neither the twins nor Tamaki had arrived yet. They weren't hosting any guests today, but instead they were going to go through the profiles of all the students' profiles to try and find one or two replacements for Mori and Hunny.

They didn't think much of it though and they both sat and did respective work.

Haruhi heard it first. The faint shrill of Tamaki's stressed out voiced.

She paused from her studies and focused her thoughts on finding the sound.

She heard it again.

"Kyoya-sempai, do you hear that?"

Kyoya stopped typing on his laptop and waited. He heard it too.

"Is that Tamaki-sempai?"

"I think so. What is he doing?"

They stood up and both followed the sound to a small closet rarely used or noticed.

Upon opening the door they found the twins and Tamaki interrogating their Arabic teacher.

"Oh thank god!" She yelled at them.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING SEMPAI?!"

"Saving you from the cult!"

"What cult?!"

The two of them went back and forth for a while. The twins stood blankly, nodding when either of them spoke. Kyoya extended a hand towards Inez and lead her from the closet.

"I must apologize for Tamaki, he means well but he is extremely thick-headed."  
"Well, I don't want to say I don't mind because I definitely don't want it to happen again, but that's alright."

"I don't mean to sound creepy," Kyoya said, sounding creepy, "but I know you're staying with the Morinozuka family, my family is good friends with them, but I am assuming they arranged a ride for you after school, you didn't miss that did you?"

"I don't know, I know Takashi-Mori, whatever he goes by, was supposed to pick me up, you don't suppose it would be a problem if you let him know I was kidnapped and will be there in a second?"

"Not at all, actually, I'll have him come here, just sit down and I'll fix you some tea."

"Thanks." Inez accepted. She focused her attention to the fight Haruhi and Tamaki were having. Tamaki had managed to shrivel up into a ball in the corner.

"A-a-arabic class?" He whimpered.

"Yes! Arabic class! And you kidnapped the teacher!"

Haruhi went through and explained who she was and why she was there.

The twins look perplexed.

"Oh. That's stupid. You're pretty dumb boss. I bet Haruhi will hate you forever." They said in unison.

"Nooooo! Haruhi, I only meant to protect you my lovely daughter!" He yelled, taking Haruhi in an embrace.

Inez wasn't sure she was making out their Japanese correctly, because it seemed weird that one boy would nickname another boy 'daughter.' She let it go though, regardless, this was entertaining.

Kyoya sat down across from her with a plate of cakes and tea.

"Mori-sempai will be here in a minute." He smiled.

"Thank you, again."

"It is the least I can do, considering it usually is considered rude when students kidnap a teacher under the assumption they are cult leaders."  
"Oh, well, I was going to assume that these things don't happen a lot in Japan and I should be honored."

Kyoya made a small laugh at her response. She smiled back, and they both descended into a comfortable silence.


	6. Chapter 6

Mori arrived, as stoic and emotionless as ever.

"Why, hello Mori-sempai, it's good to see you." Kyoya greeted him.

"Hi." Inez smiled at him, glad to see the only person she trusted in the country.

"Tamaki kidnapped you?" Mori grunted.

"More or less." She shrugged. "Are you guys all old friends?"

"Sort of," Tamaki interjected, rudely, then yelled with all the audaciousness of a Broadway musical, "We're all members of the Ouran Host Club!"

"The what?"

"The Ouran Host Club!" He repeated with the same amount of enthusiasm.

"What's a host club?" Inez asked, absolutely clueless.

"We need to go, I have training with Hunny soon." Mori muttered, stopping the explanation.

"Good idea, get her out before she gets somehow mixed up in this whole mess also…" Haruhi added, from across the room. Tamaki didn't hear her.

"Why didn't Hunny come!" He yelled.

"Because we are going to go meet him."

"Can we all go?" Tamaki whimpered.

"No." Mori said stiffly

"Don't you think you've made a bad enough impression, Tamaki?" Kyoya said coolly.

"Oh. But I apologized…" Tamaki frowned, pulling Inez into a bear hug

"I am a teacher, this seems inappropriate Tamaki."

"But you're a baby teacher! It's okay to hug a baby teacher!"

"We're off now." Mori said, turning to leave.

"Bye everyone," Inez waved, "I'll see you tomorrow, Haruhi and Kyoya," and her and Mori walked off.

Tamaki's jaw dropped. "I want to see you tomorrow." He commented silently, going into a moping mood.

"We are late, so the car will take you to the mansion after it drops me off at the dojo."

"Oh, okay," Inez replied, thinking of the lonely mansion full of ninjas. "But, is it alright if I watch? I do have to complete research, and martial arts seems great, if you don't mind of course."

"That's fine, but it might not be entertaining for you to watch."

"That's alright, if I can't stand it I have books with me." She smiled at him. He just stared at her until she broke their gaze at each other. A little to late, but he also smiled at her.

They arrived at the dojo. Mori and Hunny often trained together, even though Hunny was clearly more advanced. Usually they each did their own thing, Mori with his kendo and Hunny was developing a style that would perfectly compliment his small stature.

Hunny was alone in the dojo when they arrived. It was large and clean, with an air of age, grace and wisdom attached to it. Mori pointed to a pile of mats where Inez could sit, but Hunny ran up to her before she could sit.

"Hi! Hi! Hi! How was your first day of school? Did you meet Kyoya-san and Haruhi and everybody?"

"Yes! I did, it was an interesting day alright. How was your day?"

"I woke up at noon, and I ate cake, and I battled this guy my dad wanted me to spar with and I won and then I ate more cake!"

"What a good day." Inez laughed. She knew he was her age, but she could tell that he was so much more mature beyond his years despite his stature. Inez was glad she met Hunny, anyone with such a great disposition should be respected much more than Hunny was.

"Are you going to watch us train?"

"Yes, I'm looking of things to do for my research project. Would it be alright with you if I asked you questions after words, because I certainly don't know a thing about this."

"Yes, of course, over cake!"

"Good idea."

"You should watch Takashi though, he is working on a very old, ancient style of kendo that he has been researching himself from old books. It will be much more Japanese than what I am doing."

"Really?" Inez turned to look for Mori, but he had gone off somewhere without her even noticing. "What are you doing then, Hunny?"

"Well…how about you watch?!?"

"Sure." She sat down on the mats, and by the time she looked up again Hunny was already performing a series of flips and kicks that impressed her beyond words. After a while though, she noticed that what Hunny had been doing was pretty flashy stuff and he had now mellowed down to actual training, which was not as interesting to watch from the standpoint of someone who knows nothing about martial arts. She stood up and decided to go look for Mori, to see what he was doing.

She walked through a huge courtyard towards a series of trees that were blocking an open field. That really seemed like the only place to go for anyone to go and train.

Starting to walk through the trees she could see Mori standing about a hundred feet way. He had changed into kendo robes looking reminiscent.

She wanted to go ask what he was doing, she wanted to know what Hunny meant when he said that he researching a style of kendo, but she let it go and just stood and watched him.

Suddenly he broke his calm stance and his kendo sword – Inez took note to learn the name of it – flew into the air and quickly back down in an extremely precise movement. Inez was thrown off and stumbled backwards a little, and she just got the feeling that Mori knew she was there and she had just stumbled. Afraid that she broke his concentration, her eyes darted back to him but from what she could tell he was as concentrated as ever.

She just stood there and watched him, there was something perplexing about his training that she didn't find with Hunny. Hunny agreed too, when he showed up next to her a little while later.

"People always wonder, is it weird that I am so tiny, but so much more powerful than Takashi? How does Takashi deal with it? Is his subservience to me a matter of insecurity?" Hunny said. Inez was thrown off by Hunny's somber side that she had never seen, and assumed never came out much. "It's just, Takeshi doesn't care about martial arts and fighting like our families, or even I, do. It isn't about strength, to Takeshi, it's an art. He comprehends a beauty that is far beyond what I, or anyone in our family can imagine."

"I can see that."

"And his 'subservience,' despite his stoic, emotionless appearance, Takeshi is a very passionate person. We were raised largely to not be free with our emotions, so Takeshi channeled it into an appropriate outlet – me. While many girls find that his doting attractive, they don't understand it and I'm starting to fear that this is unhealthy for him. Hiding his art and his feelings."

Inez didn't know what to say – again, she had been in Japan for a total of a day.

"Why did you tell me this?"

Hunny pondered this question, and when he looked up at her, his eyes were sparkling and happy, back to his normal disposition. "Cause you and Takeshi are going to get married!"

Kyoya slumped down onto his bed. He was bored.

The last couple of years he had been secretly making investments and accumulating enough wealth that he was able to buy out a large branch of his father's empire.

Now that his father knew how far reaching his skills were, he actually decided to assist Kyoya with whatever business scheme he wanted.

Now Kyoya realized that the only thing he liked about doing it was the challenge. Now that the challenge of staying under his fathers radar was removed, he had no desire to do it anymore and now he had no idea what to do.

He had debated branching into other business ventures. Maybe into architecture or even something less prestigious like the entertainment industry – god knows he had a great time with the host club. Kyoya was pretty sure that wasn't it though.

He just needed something to accomplish simply because he wanted to accomplish it, not to settle family matters, or to prove something. Something that would challenge him, and he would enjoy conquering and feel proud of having accomplished it.

Tamaki walked passionately into his father's office, Kaoru and Hikaru in tow.

"What are we doing boss?"

"Infiltrating." He said squarely, slamming open the door.

"Father."

"Son." Yuzuru Suoh replied, not looking up from his paper work.

"We want to be enrolled in the Arabic class."

"Whaaaaa-?" Hikaru and Kaoru said.

"Do they want to be enrolled in the Arabic class?" Yuzuru replied.

"Not really." They said, but Tamaki yelled

"Never mind them! They don't know what they want! It is imperative for all of us to learn the language!"

"Why?" The twins pondered, annoyed. They could be home by now.

Tamaki paused, looking for a reason. "Imagine it! Walking down the sandy desert, sweating, a hoard of camels trollops by. We are researchers, looking for the ancient scrolls. A swarm of giant scorpions, the same size as a mid-size sedan suddenly attack, good thing our rippling muscles are there to help us defend knowledge!"

"You want us to give up our free hour to fuel your cosplay?" Kaoru demanded.

"Our cosplay." Tamaki corrected.

"I kind of want to." Hikaru said.

"Cosplay with me!?" Tamaki yelled excitedly.

"Take Arabic?" Yuzuru asked.

"Yeah." He said shortly. Kaoru looked at his brother questioningly, but didn't say anything.

"Well, if that is what you boys really want," Yuzuru looked at them, "Kaoru?"

"Uh," Kaoru responded breaking his gaze from his brother to Yuzuru. "Yeah, yeah, let's do it."

"Alright, I guess we could make this happen. The two from grade 10 opted to not take the class." He paused. "They wanted gym."

"Ooooooh." Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru responded, their eyes wide. It was a well known fact that couples who took gym together took it because they wanted to ability to hook up.

"And since you twins are basically one person –" Hikaru and Kaoru, without hesitation or looking at another, high-fived the other above Tamaki's head. "I guess it wouldn't be a problem if you enrolled in the Arabic class."


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Sorry about the last few chapters. The breaks I've been putting in between different sections of the chapter keep getting lost in translation. I hope this works better this time.

Inez looked at her new class.

"No." She said simply. "You three need to get out. Where are the first years?"

"We traded, mademoiselle. The fates simply believed that the three of us needed to be in this class." Tamaki romanced her, leaning over her desk and tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"I'm a teacher! You can't do that!"

"Well, you're not technically a teacher." The twins said together.

"You're a visiting tutor. Courtesy rules between student and teacher are void." Kaoru finished by himself.

"This is ridiculous!" Inez sat, defeated. "Are you three really in this class?"

"Mmhhmm." They nodded in sync.

"We have a note." Tamaki handed her the note from his father, permitting them into the class. She sighed.

"Alright, sit in the corner and catch up." She handed them workbooks. "Do the first five exercises. It's pretty self-explanatory, but you will have a lot of homework tonight."

"Got it, chief!"

"Chief?"

"Yes."

"Actually," Yuri, the other 3rd year spoke up, "I was wondering what to address you as. Sensei seems inappropriate since this is an Arabic class being taught in French – in Japan, but still."

Inez hadn't thought about this -"Well, I suppose you could call me the Arabic word for teacher 'oostatha' but since I'm not technically a teacher-"

"No you're not!" Tamaki squealed, running from across the room and pulling her into a bear hug from behind"

"RETURN TO YOUR CORNER!" She howled at him. "I guess, uh, chief would be okay?"  
"You want us to call you chief?"

"I guess since the twins are already calling me chief – yeah?"

"Okay, Chief. I had a couple of questions about the homework…"

Inez answered their questions. They were all pretty basic, what you would expect. And even though she was worried about the three new comers, maybe they would be subdued….

"Baby teacher chief!" Tamaki yelled from across the room.

"What?"

"I have a questiooooon."

"Why does this letter connect and this doesn't?"

"Because."  
"Why?"

"That's just how it is."  
"That's silly."

"Uh huh."

"Uh – chief?" Kasanoda asked from across the room.

"Yes?" She responded, with a much gentler tone than she was using for the wonder twins and their fraternal triplet.

"Look away for a second, okay?"

"Okay?" She obliged, and turned away. Kasanoda used his super glare to yell at them.

"YOU GUYS ARE ANNOYING." He growled.  
"AHHHH." They screamed, suddenly frozen in terror. Inez turned around at them screaming, and saw Kasanoda's angry face but just stared at him.

"What are you doing, Kasanoda?"  
"Buying you ten minutes of uninterrupted teaching time."

"Oh, thankyou, I guess."

That's how the rest of the class was - stupid questions from the wonder triplets that seemed to be asked just to antagonize her. Kasanoda or Haruhi usually took it upon themselves to police the three, but Haruhi's yelling usually only worked on Tamaki. Which got Inez thinking – are these two boys in love with each other? She didn't think about it much, but it was kind of cute.

At the end, they all filed out, Tamaki offering her an apple and a seductive attempt to wash the blackboard before she physically had to kick him out. She went to collect her things – day two was a lot more dramatic than day one. She saw a small notebook in the corner of the classroom.  
"Oh – someone seems to have dropped their…diary?" She guessed, opening the first page to see if she could find a name. Hikaru. She wanted to return it to him – as she felt uncomfortable taking someone's diary home with her or leaving it for someone with cruel intentions to find. She figured they probably went back to the room where they took her when they kidnapped her yesterday – hopefully she could find it.

__________________________________________________________

Margaret sat slumped on her and Inez's dorm room couch. She was bored. Inez had left only three days ago and she now had nothing to do since she finished her last exam.

She had already taken refuge into a certain illegal recreational plant, and now after destroying the cafeteria with munchies she was sick of watching family guy.

Inez hadn't been on Skype like she promised she would be. Not that Margaret was worried, Inez was probably caught up with whatever and would get on eventually.

Margaret was a medium height girl with wavy sandy blonde hair that she usually just let run wild and big, bright happy brown eyes. She was majoring in architecture, and dreamed of building the most elegant sky rise in the world. A skyscraper that would last as long as the pyramid and be as beautiful as the Taj Majal She wore a neon orange shirt that bore the words "A Clockwork Orange," blue jeans and flip flops.

She was about to take another hit of the afore mentioned drug, when she heard a loud pounding on her door. "Fuck." She muttered, afraid it was the R.A. smelling the weed. "Hold on! I don't have pants on!" She yelled, hiding her bong and over febreezing the room. "Just took a wicked shit!"

Margaret opened the door, a sighed in semi relief. "John?"

"Inez missed her final." He responded shortly.

"Dude – she's in Japan." Margaret laughed.

"What?" He responded, a subtle look of anger over swept his face. John was a serious boy. He and Inez had the same major – different regions – but regardless there was a lot of overlap in the classes they had to take. He became quite taken with Inez during their freshman year in their intro to political science class. Inez had always been a fan of tennis, something Margaret was terrible at, and had missed it since she started college. He became her tennis partner, and even though he never played before, as the national under 18 Tae Kwon Do champion, his natural athleticism made him a formidable opponent for Inez.

Inez, being fairly clueless about love, never noticed his advances. John, not knowing how to up the subtle hints, simply became angry and adopted some pretty stalker habits. Inez also did not notice this.

Margaret did. She admitted it her concerns to Inez at the end of their freshman year, when he kept inviting her to go boating with him on the Mediterranean so she could 'practice Arabic.'

Inez, not accepting Margaret's "he wants to bone you so hard he'll probably kill you with over-love" theory, did notice the stalker behavior when it was pointed out to her.

"He did come over one night when you weren't here and put a sock on the door before he came in." Inez remembered, staring blankly at the ceiling. "I thought it was a joke."

"He also was sitting on the bench across the quad looking in our window – every night for a month." Margaret reminded her.

So Inez stopped hanging out with him so much, and soon rarely talked to him. Then, as the end of her sophomore year approached and all the plans about Japan came up – she just never mentioned it to him. That was that.

"Japan?" he repeated to Margaret.

"Yeah dude, she's gonna be gone for a year."

John struggled to find words, and he couldn't, so he punched the wall outside of her door and walked away.

Margaret, high, laughed. That wasn't a good action on Margaret's side.

____________________________________________________

Inez felt proud of herself. She found the room on her first try. She opened the door, and suddenly a blinding light and a swarm of rose petals flew at her.

"What the ef?" She yelled.

"Welcome to Ouran Host Club!" Voices cooed to her. As the blinding light subsided, she saw the majority of her Arabic class standing there.

"What is this?"

"Oh! Baby teacher chief!" Tamaki yelled, embracing her. "I'm so glad you came to see us! Mori was so mean yesterday when he pulled you away before you could experience the wonder of our club."

"Uh." Was all Inez could respond.

"So. What type are you interested in? Unfortunately we are temporarily out of Lolita and Strong and silent, but I'm sure any of our other wonderful types would suit you just fine."

"Uhhh. Hikaru."

"HIKARU!!" Tamaki beamed. "What a good choice! The twins are very popular." Before Inez knew it, the twins were swarming her, stroking her hair and shoulders.

"Ah! No!" Inez stumbled. "Hikaru…left his notebook, I came to return it."

Hikaru blushed, suddenly, and grabbed the book and shoved it in his bag. Kaoru looked at his brother, unsure of what he was doing. Hikaru looked back at him, and they had a conversation with their eyes. Inez stared at the interaction intensely, but their conversation suddenly ended.

"Hikaru!" Kaoru pouted. "I told you to be more responsible."

"I'm sorry, brother." Hikaru whimpered, "You know I was just so excited to get the club today. We were trying on new outfits."

"I know Hikaru, just don't do it again." They started embracing each other.

"I won't, I'm sorry Kaoru!"

"Wh-what are you two doing?!" Inez muttered, her eyes wide. Suddenly, a pack of girl students surrounded her.

"THE FORBIDDEN TWIN LOVE!" They all screamed.

"Ah!" Inez cried. She couldn't get out of the crowd of fanatic girls. "Help!" She yelled.

Suddenly she felt a strong hand clasp her upper arm and pull her out of the crowd.  
Mori had appeared behind her and pulled her out of the crowd and into his arms.

"Oh, thankyou Mori." She said, casually. This seemed normal. Mori responded with a soft look. The moment was short lived when the girl crowd turned from the twins to Mori.

"MORI!" They yelled. "HE RESCUED HER! HE'S SO POWERFUL AND PROTECTIVE!" They screamed at each other, a few crying.

"Is this for real?"

"Yes."

"This is what you did in high school?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Hunny liked all of the free cake."

"Oh."

Mori put her down. Haruhi walked up to them. "When you got here I called Mori to let him know where you were. I anticipated something like this happening. You should leave while Tamaki's distracted." They all looked over at Tamaki – he was pouring instant coffee gently into a blushing girls mouth.

They took Haruhi's advice and left with haste. "See you tomorrow, Haruhi."

"See you later, Chief."


	8. Chapter 8

Life had finally settled into a routine for Inez. Two weeks in, she finally learned how to harness the learning ability of Tamaki. The trick was to let his ego do the learning.

"Oh, Tamaki. I just fear that if you don't learn, it'll prove that I'm a bad teacher." She whimpered at him one day. "And I just want to be a good teacher, Tamaki"

"Baby Teacher!" He cried, "You are the greatest teacher to grace this planet, I wish I could just spend all my school days, alone, in a classroom with you."

"Oh! I believe you Tamaki, I do! But you are just being nice because you can't even memorize the sun and moon letters!"

"Baby teacher! I swear! Before the hour is finished, I will have the sun and moon letters put to memory!" Tamaki saluted, and ran to his corner to study furiously.

The twins ended up focusing their attention on making the class an eternal twincest play.

"I don't understand! It's too difficult! Kaoru!" Hikaru would whine.

"Let me check your work, brother." Kaoru cooed, sexually, back.

Inez walked over and checked his work for him.

"It's all correct." She murmured, annoyed.

"What?" The twins said together.

"Your work, Hikaru, it's all correct. Why are you whining?"

"Uh." He paused, staring blankly at her. "WHAHAHAAHA!" he wailed suddenly to Kaoru. "Teacher's picking on me!"

"HOW IS TELLING YOU YOUR WORK IS GOOD PICKING ON YOU?!" She hollered at them.

Yuri, the other third year, stopped her. "Don't stop them Chief! This is hot!" She said, clamping her hand over Inez's mouth.

"You can't treat a teacher that way!" She exclaimed, her daily complaint. Hikaru and Kaoru both stopped gazing at each other and interjected –

"You're not a teacher." They mocked.

"YOU TWO NEED TO LEARN!" Tamaki yelled at them from a corner. "IF NOT BABY TEACHER CHIEF WILL FAIL!"

"I won't fail…" Inez muttered to herself, then sighed and turned to the rest of the class and left Hikaru, Kaoru and Tamaki to fight, and Yuri to adore them.

"Okay…so, have you all finished that worksheet?" She laughed, trying to draw their attention from the spectacle.

"I've been finished." Kyoya muttered, not looking up from whatever else he was working on.

"Oh." She responded, "So how about you tell me what this says." She scribbled a word on the board.

"kabeer." He read, not as instantly as a fluent person would, but with relative ease.

"What does it mean."

"Large?" Kasanoda interjected.

"Right. How about this one?" She scribbled another word on the board.

"Jameel." Haruhi read.

"Correct, Jameel means beautiful. Haruhi, how would you say…uh, Tamaki is beautiful."

"Tamaki Jameel." She responded, with a slight intonation of unsure.

"Yup. Adjectives follow nouns and there is no verb 'to be' used." She said, writing out the simple sentence on the board.

"ANA JAMEEL! ANA JAMEEL!" (I am beautiful) Tamaki yelled, hearing that Haruhi called him beautiful.

"NO YOU'RE NOT." Kasanoda howled back at him.

"Who are you to talk?" The twins snapped back.

"Baby teacher chief?" Tamaki whispered, hugging her from behind. "Ana jameel?"

"You said it wrong." She said, not wanting to shatter his ever changing ego with her rejection of his beauty, even though he was undoubtbly beautiful.

"I'M NOT BEAUTIFUL!" Tamaki cried.

"DON'T WORRY! YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL! YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL!" Yuri cheered from the back.

"Tamaki, chief thinks you're beautiful." Kyoya muttered, still not diverting his attention.

"YAY!" he yelled, pulling Inez into another hug. "I'm beeeeeeaauuuutiful!!!" He yelled, twirling her around.

This is how class was on a daily bases, equal parts learning and equal parts dealing with the host club.

____________________________________________________________

John stared frustrated at the computer. Inez had run off to Japan and he couldn't figure out where she was.

John didn't understand why he liked Inez. Growing up, he had always been the best looking guy of anyone, everyone he knew thought he was the best looking person of everyone they knew. Added with his silent nature, preference for solitude, and a rockin' martial arts bod made him irresistible to any girl. Unfortunately, his preference for solitude was actually a need for solitude. John is a weird dude. Girls annoyed him, guys were jealous of him, so he didn't bother having friends.

Nothing changed when he went to Yale. Until second semester, when he shared a class with Inez. By the second week of class, John had already developed a small fanclub of girls in the lecture. They sat behind him a couple of rows every lecture and giggled at his every move.

This frustrated John, but he had grown used to it. But it was that one day, Inez ran in late, and in her desperate attempt to not disrupt the teacher, she took the seat right next to John.

"Sorry." She muttered, and pulled out a notebook, and didn't pay any attention to him.

That was what struck John. She didn't pay any attention to him. Most girls who casually bumped into him became flustered, blushed and said a few stupid words before he brushed them off.

The next lecture he went out of his way to make sure they sat in the same room. Nothing happened. The same with the next lecture, and quite a few after that.

A few weeks later, John bumped into Inez on campus. Literally, he was lost in his angry thoughts after working out, and she was searching through her bag for a pen.

"Oh! Sorry about that!" She exclaimed. "Wasn't paying attention, haha."

John didn't say anything except "grug" Inez had started to go on her way, but stopped.

"Hey, you're in my polisci class, aren't you?"

John snapped back into his cool demeanor. "Uh, yeah. You look familiar."

"Yeah! I'm glad I'm bumped into you! I had a question about the reading but I couldn't catch the professor –" She talked on about their class. He answered nonchalantly.

"Are you going to work out?" She asked, kind of ditzy, but he found it totally adorable.

"Um, no. I just finished – actually."

"Gotcha. Good for you, I'm not too into working out myself, but I did play tennis in high school and I can't even believe how much I miss playing it."

"Tennis? You like tennis?"  
"Yeah, love it. Do you play?"

"Uh, yeah. Not often but I…like it." He lied.

"I feel like most people enjoy tennis no matter how little or much they play it." She smiled up at him.

John bit his lip. TOO CUTE was screaming in the back of his mind. His cool nature, his stoic temperament, his ripped chest meant nothing to her. "We should try playing sometime." He responded robotically.

"Yeah! That'd be great!" She beamed, and wrote down her information for him.

The rest is history, but now, in retrospect, John was starting to realize that maybe he went a little overboard on the whole "getting her attention" thing.

Now, she was in Japan, didn't have the respect to tell him. What was she doing in Japan? She was Middle Eastern studies! He was East Asian studies! Why on earth wouldn't she tell him that she was going to Japan! Unless – maybe, maybe this was her backwards way of getting his attention, or respect. Going to Japan, learning a language he was fluent in, a culture he was well-versed in, that would be Inez's way of impressing him.

What did this mean? Did she really like him but was persuaded by her roommate to act otherwise? She never was actually mean to him, she just started talking to him less and less – until she disappeared to Japan!

It was her roommate, definitely. He had to get to the bottom of this.

________________________________________________

Margaret took a victory hit. She had moved back into her room in her home in Detroit. She took another victory hit when she saw that Inez was online.

"Finally, ass face!" She yelled at her computer monitor, turning on her webcam. "What's up!"

"What?!!" Margaret's older brother yelled from the downstairs.

"NOT YOU." She yelled back, there was no response.

"Hey!" Inez beamed at the computer. Inez is a morning person, it was early morning in Japan, late evening in Detroit. "Are you stoked about going to Ecuador soon?"

"Stoked about GOING to Ecuador?! Yeah. Question in, are you stoked about being in Japan?!"

"Well, honestly, Japan is way different than I expected."

"That's what all the study abroad brochures say."

"But, seriously. I don't know if I can explain. Most of my students are members of this club…Host Club, or something like that. They like entertain woman romantically. It's weird, but half of them act like they're at their club all the time…it's manageable but extremely weird."

"Oh dude, totally. But I have to tell you. Fucking John came over to our dorm a couple of weeks ago. He was PISSED that you didn't tell him you were going to Japan."

"Oh! John! I…forgot to tell him…oh, wow. I guess he would be upset."

"He was. OH SHIT! Show me your room RIGHT NOW INEZ. I can see a little of it behind you, but is that for real?"

"Yeah, these people are serious about their luxuries." Inez commented, walking her laptop around the room, showing off all the splendor.

"Man. I hope my host family is that B.A., where's yours? I wanna meet this guy Prof Assad wants you to marry."

"Oh, Mori. Um. I might be able to catch him. He goes out to train every morning, hang on." She dragged her laptop to the hallway and looked down, it was large and empty. "You know what, you're probably going to have to wait on meeting him for a while. Mori is kind of…distant."

"Does he hate you?" Margaret asked, using a valley girl voice. "Are you totally annoying to him."

"I don't think so, he just doesn't express much. Then his cousin, who is also our age, went and told me all these deep thoughts about him and I just don't even know. He's distant but attentive, and I don't know how to handle it. He's like John but he plays totally in bounds."

"Oh. What? This isn't normal behavior for two young adults."

"Yeah, but none of the young adults I've met here behave by normal standards."

"I think I'm getting to know him more. If I ask him a direct, open ended question he will respond accurately. I think I'm starting to get to what really makes him tick because his answers are getting longer and longer."

"What do you ask him about?"

"Kendo."

"Sword fighting?"  
"Yeah, I've been researching it. It's pretty interesting, the history and all. Mori's like resurrecting an extremely old style that no one has used for centuries. He knows a lot about it – it's surprising."

"And he's telling you all about it?"  
"Yeah."  
"Well, if that isn't blossoming love then I do not know what is."  
"We are supposed to get married and all…" Inez kind of trailed off. "I have to get going, I have to shower for school."

"RIGHTOUES!" Margaret announced. "Next time you'll see me I'll be in Ecuador!"


	9. Chapter 9

Margaret panted as she reached her floor. Three stories doesn't seem like much, but in the high altitude of Ecuador, it was a painful climb.

"PORQUEEEEE? WHY DID I CHOOSE ECUADOR?" She yelled, startling another girl who was on her trip. The girl ignored her and went on her way. "Whoooof" Margaret panted one last time as she opened the door to her room.

She had only been in Ecuador for a few days and everything was new and exciting, but what she saw sitting in her bedroom made her drop both her keys and several f-bombs.

"What the fuck John?"

John was sitting calmly in her room. Waiting for her, looking sadistic. Margaret didn't really know what was coming, but she knew it wasn't going to be good, so she raised her hands and conceded. No use in fighting him, she was already out of breath.

"I'm glad stoners are so lazy." John muttered as grabbed her by the hands and began to tie her up.

"Oh! I'll do anything! Just don't rape me or kill me!" Margaret cried. She never imagined being kidnapped before, but she was sure as hell she wouldn't cry about it. Especially since she was being kidnapped by John. This isn't to make a mockery of how frightened she actually was. "Oh! I guess you can have your way with me! Just let the baby go! He's just a babyyyyyy!"

John wanted to slap her, but he supposed this was better than her crying so he let it go. "Oh! Okay!" She went ahead and started to make panting noises. At least both of them would feel uncomfortable. "Oooooooh! This is such sexy cosplay!" She screamed.

There was a silent pause. Margaret's fear began to take over, and she herself got a little annoyed at having to make sexy sounds. "Okay, seriously." She calmed down. "What the fuck?"

"I need you to contact Inez."

"" She moaned. "Could you be any more annoying?"

"I'm serious. I couldn't find her. You were easy to find, being on a school sponsored trip."

"Uuuuuugh. Okay. Go onto my laptop and log on. But I'm not kidding you, she only comes on like every two weeks. It would be pretty awkward to hold me captive for two weeks. You'd have to feed me and stuff." She held out her tongue and pretended to eat from an imaginary spoon. "But it would be kind of hot."

He ignored her, sat at the computer and waited for Inez to log on.

Inez stared at the tennis rackets. They looked like they hadn't been used in years. She desperately wanted to play, but asking anyone around Ninja Manor frightened her. She didn't want to ask them to go easy on her, but frankly, if they didn't she would probably have to go to the hospital.

Mori came up behind her. He was sweaty from a long training session. He too stared at the rackets. Inez, oblivious, didn't notice him behind her. This gave Mori enough time to stare at the rackets, stare at Inez staring at the rackets, and stare at the rackets some more before he finally got that she wanted to play tennis.

Inez sighed and backed up, into Mori. Shocked, she let out a short high-pitched scream and cringed into a protective stance.

Realizing it was Mori, she loosened up a bit and started to laugh. "Holy….you scared me." She muttered. The room feel silent. Mori had transitioned from the rackets to Inez. Inez to him.

"Do…you…want to play tennis?" He cringed out. It was so awkward it is even painful for me to write about.

Inez's eyes got wide. "Are you good at tennis?" Not implying that he wouldn't be good enough to play with her, but hoping he would suck and he pure strength wouldn't be enough to kill her.

"I've never played." He grunted. "In fact. I don't know why we have tennis rackets. Or an indoor tennis court. I didn't even know this was a tennis court. But now it makes sense. Their being a net and all."

The flow of words charmed Inez so much she had to anxiously accept. "Then lets play!"

Tamaki's ear twitched.

"LOVE IS AFOOT!" He yelled and ran to a phone. "HANI. Urgent. SO URGENT. Where is Mori-sempai? Where is baby teacher chief? THEY MAY BE MAKING LOVE RIGHT NOW!"

"Well, that's something silly. I don't know where they are. But you can come over if you –…." Before Hani could finish, Tamaki was there.

"We have to find them! Now!"

"Oh hello." Hani said, slightly annoyed, but still super cute. "Okay."

The two meandered through the castle for a while, Tamaki begging/complimenting all the female attendants for information. Eventually, one of them told them the two were playing tennis in the courts.

"There's a tennis court here?" Hani asked allowed. The maid shrugged. Tamaki, who magically knew the way, picked up Hani and sprinted to the courts.

Sure enough Inez and Mori were there.

But they weren't playing tennis.

They were making out.

Hani's mouth dropped. Tamaki's face went red. He dropped Hani, who landed face first and frozen. Tamaki very stiffly marched up to the two fresh love birds and knocked on Mori's shoulder. Mori, who had been completely distracted by his first kiss to notice his friend's arrival, turned a deep shade of crimson and backed away.

Tamaki, looking very authoritative, grabbed Inez by the waist, hoisted her onto his shoulders and began to walk away.

Inez, half as flustered as everyone else and not pleased by the interruption.

"Hey! What the hell!"

"In. A. Pro. Pri. At." Tamaki responded, robotically. He marched slowly off. Not really sure were he was going.

Hani finally snapped out of it. "WAIT! YAAAAY! You're getting married! You're getting married! You're getting married!" He chanted at Inez. She didn't respond.

"Mori!" She yelled out. Mori had been standing frozen, but he snapped out of it and instantly rushed over and pryed her out of Tamaki's arms.

"Thanks." She muttered. Inez had had boyfriends before, she knew the whole dating thing was a bit more refined in Japan, but this is ridiculous. "Okay you two." She lectured a beaming-with-joy Hani and a robot Tamaki. "Mori and I are adults. We can kiss each other if we please."

"Buuuuuut. Baby –" Tamaki muttered. Normally Inez wouldn't have been so abrupt about things of this nature. But this was out of hand, and her sheer annoyance caused her to make a defiant statement. Not to mention how awkward things have been in the past couple of months between them. There was obviously an attraction, Mori obviously had no backbone on matters of emotion, so she just went ahead and said it.

"Mori and I are now dating. I wish, and I'm sure Mori does too, that you refrain from letting any members of your family or the host club know about this relationship. It will save us a lot of drama and it will allow for a relatively natural relationship to form."

Mori muttered in agreement. An hour ago he was a tornado of unorganized thoughts about her. Now he was her boyfriend?

Tamaki simply stated. "Okay."

Hani jumped up and down. "Wife and husband and wedding and babies and wife and husband and weddings and babies and wife and husband…."


	10. Chapter 10

A/N. Hey guys. Sorry again about the breaks. I'm not sure what's happening. Also, sorry about the year long hiatus. School got kind of wild. But now I am sitting here at my parent's house in Saudi Arabia doing NOTHING except streaming movies and writing fanfiction. So enjoy!

Also, no one has criticized me yet, but I know my grammar/spelling is far from perfect. Apologies if it annoys anyone, and I appreciate no one bitching about it. Fanfiction is for fun!

It took a while for Mori and Inez to shake off Tamaki and Hani. Tamaki went home, and wasn't very good at the fact that he was going to tell the rest of the host club. Inez was okay with that, she knew that they would figure out and it was probably for the best that it would be over with right away. Hani was off dancing somewhere.

The two of them were sitting in a rarely used parlor in the back of the estate. Usually, their time spent together was them doing their individual tasks together. Often in silence, but a lot of times one of them would be explaining what they were doing or just talking without response from the other. Both of them liked that, because they complete confidence that the other one was listening.

This time though, there was just a lot of blushing.

Finally, Mori spoke. "Alright."

Inez knew what he meant. "Yeah." She got up. "I'm going to take a shower and prepare for class. I'll find you in a bit." And went over and kissed him lightly. Mori froze.

Inez wasn't exactly pleased that she had to take the upper hand in the relationship, but she knew that Mori wouldn't let himself. She figured one day he would develop a bit.

She went off to shower, Mori sat there to collect his thoughts.

Tamaki went immediately to Kyoya's house.

"Kyoya!" He yelled at the front gates. "KYOOOOOOYAAAAA"

The maids sighed and rang for Kyoya. "He's on his way, Master Tamaki."

At the first sight of Kyoya descending the stair, obviously not please at his friends uninvited arrival; Tamaki screamed a list of commands at everyone in the room.

"IVE CALLED THE TROOPS! MAKE TEA AND SNACKS! URGENT MATTERS ARE AFOOT! WHERE'S YOUR NOTEBOOK KYOYA? LOVE IS A BLOSSOMINGGG!"

Kyoya rubbed his eyes in annoyance. "What is it, Tamaki?"

"MORI AND BABY TEAAACHER!" He sang "ARE IN LOVE!"

Kyoya nodded his head. "Mhmm."

"I've seen it with my own eyes! The two of them, passionately, yet shyly locking lips. It's like a mooovie!"

Kyoya looked unaffected. "Yes."

This was obviously not the response Tamaki was looking for. "We must be the ushers of a great love." He whimpered.

"Tamaki." Kyoya got serious. "Love as an idea can be novel and easily exploited, but if you truly think that there may be a deep connection between Ustaathana (our teacher) and Mori-Sempai I feel you should leave the matter alone. Besides, I have to criticize you for not noticing the romance."

Tamaki looked defeated.

"Don't listen to him boss!" Hikaru and Kaoru encouraged. They had arrived, with a confused and unhappy Haruhi.

"Without our intervention, Mori will be too awkward" Hikaru started

"And Chief will forget all about him as soon as she returns to the States."

"AND WE CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN!" The three chimed in unison. Haruhi looked confused. Kyoya briefly filled her in and her facial expression changed to annoyed.

"And god knows Mori will never ever have another girlfriend ever!" Tamaki cried. "This is his last chance for LoOoOoOve!"

"Yeah!" Hikaru and Kaoru agreed.

"And he's too good looking to let that happen!"

"Yeah!"

"And there's no way our intervening will mess this up!"

"Yeah!"

"EVERYONE! Get into my car! We have to go lay some ground rules for these fresh new lovers!"

"Yeah!"

"Wait?" Haruhi piped timidly "I don't want to be a part of this, and I feel obligated to stop it."

"Stop whining righteous sally!" Tamaki cried and waved his hands. Hikaru and Kaoru started pushing her against her will towards the exit. Kyoya followed uninterested.

Inez got out of the shower.

She was happy about the day's events. Being as giddy as a girl can about a new boyfriend, she wanted to immediately tell Margaret.

As she was waiting for Skype to log on, Mori knocked on the door.

"What's up?"

"Um." Inez waited as he overcame his bouts of awkwardness. She didn't look at her screen as John's face popped up, with Margaret tied up in the background, making funny faces.

Mori shook off whatever fear he was harboring (apparently Hani had insisted that it was his boyfriend duty to kiss her goodnight) and walked over and stiffly yet passionately kissed her. This pleased Inez immensely and gladly returned the kiss.

John's face dropped but instantly sullied with anger. Margaret made whooping noises. Mori and Inez's attention shifted to the whooping.

Their initial embarrassment was replaced with immense confusion.

"John?" They said in unison. Then they looked at each other.

"You know John?" Again in unison.

"Yeah. We used to compete"

"Yeah, we go to school together."

"MORINOZUKA? YOU'RE WITH MORINOZUKA?" John yelled.

"oooooooooooh yeeeeaaaaaaah." Margaret chimed in, making suggestive head bobs.

"MARGARET? YOU'VE KIDNAPPED MARGARET?"

"I couldn't find you!"

"SO YOU WENT TO ECUADOR AND KIDNAPPED MARGARET?"

"I found you."

"YOU'RE SO WEIRD!" Was the only thing Inez could think to say. Mori had a confused look plastered on his face. There was a short silence. "Well. What now?" Inez asked.

"Oh yeah. Well. Margaret here is subdued, and I will, uh, do terrible things if you don't come with me."

"Yeah. Then what? I hate you forever and we live awfully on your BOAT?" Inez muttered. John really wasn't a thinker. But John actually had a deep hatred of the Morinozuka family so that gave him ammunition.

"No. It's clear you hate me. But the Morinozuka's are not a safe family. Not for you. They will hurt. The little one, the tiny blonde one. He is an explosion waiting to happen. I want you safe, come with me and I'll take you home."

"What?"

Mori finally chimed in. "Uh. John. We're going to discuss for a second. We'll be right back." Mori grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out into the hallway.

"Well?" He asked her.

"I don't know?"

"You want to go to Ecuador?"

"Not really. Not to mention I can't pay for it."

"Well…I can."

"Psh. If anyone is going to pay for this affair, it will be John. Besides. Let's get him to come here."

"Okay."

They went back to the computer screen. "You come here." Inez said starkly.

"No. I'm not walking into a Morinozuka mine field. You have to come here."

Inez's face tightened. She wasn't sure what to do. This whole situation was more annoying than not.

"Fine. Send me a plane ticket and money for a visa and I'll go."

"You have to go alone."

"Yeah yeah." Inez muttered. She wasn't going to ask Mori to come along, but she knew he would. And there was no way for John to track who came along or not.


End file.
